1. Field of the Invention
A motor vehicle hand-brake customarily includes a hand-brake operating lever with an associated ratchet mechanism arranged to hold the operating lever, and thus the brake, in an "applied" position once the hand brake has been operated and after manual effort has been removed from the lever, until subsequent release of the handbrake by operation of a manually operable release member, such as a push-button, serves to lift a pawl from the ratchet of the ratchet mechanism whilst the lever is returned to the "released" position. A motor vehicle having such a hand-brake is herein referred to as being "of the kind referred to".